No 'Magic Piece of Intelligence' Existed on Abdulmutallab

Official defends CIA handling of data
By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 29, 2009 8:31 PM CST
No 'Magic Piece of Intelligence' Existed on Abdulmutallab
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's mug shot.   (US Marshals Service)

With the US intelligence community under fire from President Obama on down about what was known, and when, about would-be airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, one insider is taking exception. “Abdulmutallab’s father didn’t say his son was a terrorist, let alone planning an attack,” an unnamed official tells Politico of reports that the CIA met with the Nigerian’s father months ago. “I’m not aware of some magic piece of intelligence that suddenly would have flagged this guy — whose name nobody even had until November — as a killer en route to America.”
(More Detroit terror incident stories.)

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